TOMORROW, Sat. Jan 6, is the last day of COLISEUM BOOKS in NYC

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The Drama Bookstore (250 W. 40th) is holding on.

Loved Coliseum on 57th back in the day.

Any Given User (Eazy), Sunday, 10 July 2016 16:55 (seven years ago) link

Have still not been to this swanky new French bookstore:
Albertine, 972 Fifth Avenue, between E 78th and E 79th.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/albertine-reparue-french-bookshop-new-york
http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/albertine-french-embassy-bookstore-new-york

Librairie de France, 610 Fifth Avenue on Rockefeller Center, closed in 2009
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/longlived-french-bookstore-in-rockefeller-center-to-close/

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 17:00 (seven years ago) link

Has anyone been to the new Rizzoli on bway and 26?

calstars, Sunday, 10 July 2016 17:00 (seven years ago) link

No intending to go there soon when I get a chance and perhaps Idlewild as well.

Used to be a French perhaps French and Spanish bookstore on 5th quite near the main Barnes & Noble store but I can't quite remember its name or location. I believe its inventory was taken over by Librairie de France.
There was also a German language bookstore inside an office building a block or two north of Columbus Circle (you had to take an elevator), staffed by a charming elderly lady and a cat. (You could call the owner, Tom something, in Westchester, I think, if you really needed a special order) One time they put my purchase in a kind of used interoffice mailer, the previous recipient or sender being De NIro's assistant Jane R, who a friend of mine had worked for a little before that time.

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 17:10 (seven years ago) link

The Juilliard Store has been moving since they have been doing all the work on Lincoln Center these past years, used to be on the upper level near the Walter Reade theater, think it is now on street level near the cafe in the film center called indie food and wine. Ah no, in basically the same location on block north, 144 W 66th Street (cafe at 144 W 65th)

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 17:17 (seven years ago) link

Forgot that I also verified with my own eyes that The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, is still going strong at its downtown location which it has been at since 2006. Old location was midtown, 57th street maybe. Where there was also an art bookstore a few floors up that I haven't been to in a decade or so and can't quite remember.

But Partners & Crime, 44 Greenwich Ave, between Charles and Perry, closed in 2010.
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/08/partners-crime-bookshop.html

Is the newish sci-fi bookstore in DUMBO, Singularity, 18 Bridge Street, still there? Website is down.

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 17:28 (seven years ago) link

Ah, found a sticker on a book that says

The Dictionary Store
115 FIFTH AVE., N.Y. 10003
610 FIFTH AVE., N.Y. 10020

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 17:59 (seven years ago) link

So the other bookstore, also know as French & European Publications was at 19th Street and Fifth Ave.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/07/books/going-out-guide.html

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:09 (seven years ago) link

NYPL bookstore links, some here some gone:
https://www.nypl.org/weblinks/2160

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:10 (seven years ago) link

Wonder how old that is. Labyrinth Books is listed but now in NYC it is now Book Culture, 536 W 112th St. (Labyrinth now Princeton only, Book Culture has a few other new locations)
http://www.harlemonestop.com/organization/593/book-culture112th-street-bookshop

Ah, owner previously worked at Papyrus Books (not the stationery store chain) at 114th and Broadway, which later became Morningside Bookshop and closed in 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/nyregion/30metjournal.html
Some articles about Papyrus can be found by googling Papyus Staskiewicz, the latter being the owner's last name. Loved going to that place on a Saturday after getting out of SHP in Pupin Hall at Columbia.

Relatively recent roundup:
http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/67391/

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:31 (seven years ago) link

Way too rich for my blood but
Argosy Books, 116 E 59th Street
is still a going concern.

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:33 (seven years ago) link

In addition to missing the Barnes & Noble flagship
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/01/barnes-noble-flagship.html
I also miss the Barnes & Noble Sales Annex, which was across the street and was definitely still there in the early 80s. Had tons of used and genre books at a deep discount, I believe- a commenter in that link talks about the ".88 bargain basement"

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:39 (seven years ago) link

A friend of mine lost his virginity getting picked up by a much older woman in the Upper East Side B&N when he was a teenager.

Any Given User (Eazy), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:56 (seven years ago) link

Sales Annex mentioned in this old Columbia university roundup- "Bibliophilia" etc-
http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19780216-01.1.8&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------#
Was on 17th and Fifth, must still have been there in 1994
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/12/nyregion/new-yorkers-co-359351.html

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 18:57 (seven years ago) link

Columbia Spectator also mentions a Brentano's at 20 University Place, which I remember, and a chain called Marlboro Books, which I have no recollection of.

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 19:03 (seven years ago) link

Ah, I had forgotten The Madison Avenue Bookshop was responsible for this:
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/09/books/5-year-old-southern-novel-enjoys-a-sales-boom.html

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 19:16 (seven years ago) link

Another bookstore on Madison at 81st, Burlington, that I am afraid I don't really recall
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/16/nyregion/neighborhood-report-manhattan-up-close-more-bookstore-casualties.html
Article also mentions Endicott, as does
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014/09/02/an-independent-bookstore-rises-on-the-upper-west-side/

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 19:25 (seven years ago) link

Spring Street Books, 169 Spring Street
http://www.sohobooks.net/gallery/

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 19:43 (seven years ago) link

Art Bookstore on 57th was Hacker Art Books, 45 W 57th Street
apparently aka Strand-Hacker or Hacker-Strand
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/24/nyregion/s-hacker-83-book-dealer-in-new-york.html

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 19:49 (seven years ago) link

German Book Center located in Mountain Dale, not Westchester. No further zooming in on NYC Columbus Circle area location.

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 20:03 (seven years ago) link

Okay, 1841 Broadway (W 60th)

Seymour Hacker obit quite interesting.

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 20:05 (seven years ago) link

A little more about Hacker
http://www.nysun.com/arts/still-life-in-the-art-book-trade/885/
In which article

Ursus Books, 699 Madison Avenue

is mentioned still in business

The Rite of Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 July 2016 20:10 (seven years ago) link

Still there
Three Lives & Company 154 W 10th

http://www.threelives.com/

Used to have the devil of a time finding it because I could never remember what intersection it was at and it is located in an area where a lot of slanted streets converge. I see now on the map there there is sort of a rhombus bounded by 7th Ave, Greenwich Ave, 6th Ave and W 4th Street, with Christopher as a diagonal, W10th, Charles and Perry running parallel to it in the upper triangle and Washington an altitude of the lower triangle with 6th Avenue as base and Waverly running parallel to Washington.

Blandings Castle Magic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 11 July 2016 00:35 (seven years ago) link

Ah, but Waverly has two sections that intersect, one including a "spur." The other part of Waverly runs parallel to an altitude in the upper triangle with Christopher as base which doesn't correspond to any street.

Blandings Castle Magic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 11 July 2016 00:38 (seven years ago) link

(This is what happens when you grow up in a city and feel like looking at a map is for outsiders)

Blandings Castle Magic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 11 July 2016 00:40 (seven years ago) link

Three Lives is endangered.

mick signals, Monday, 11 July 2016 00:59 (seven years ago) link

Ugh.

Blandings Castle Magic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 11 July 2016 01:02 (seven years ago) link

Walked in there the other day. Couldn't get myself to bring this up with the staff.

Gabba Gabba Hey in the Hayloft (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 20:29 (seven years ago) link

But really came to post, that I finally figured out, it came to me in the middle of the night a few days ago, the name of the bookstore/cardshop near where I grew up in Queens, where I spent a lot of time when I was coming up. I had been thinking about it for months, had no way of finding it out, I was even going to contact Will Hermes, who I believe lived near there as well, and ask if he remembered, even though I don't know him.

Gabba Gabba Hey in the Hayloft (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 20:32 (seven years ago) link

Finally the name came to me

Gabba Gabba Hey in the Hayloft (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 20:32 (seven years ago) link

in the middle of that night at 3 or 4 AM. An interior voice said to me the name of this store, which was the name of a chain that now seems to have exactly one outlet. And the name of this chain was:
Womrath or Womrath's.

Gabba Gabba Hey in the Hayloft (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 20:34 (seven years ago) link

Ah, I see through google books that there is a nice book with photos of this bookstore and lots of other Art Deco buildings built around the same era called Fresh Meadows, by Fred Cantor and ‎Debra L. Davidson. Only some of them were Art Deco by the time I was coming up.

Death of a Disco Mystic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 20:50 (seven years ago) link

Art Bookstore on 57th was Hacker Art Books, 45 W 57th Street

I went there a few times. Strand bought their stock, if memory serves. But Hacker had some kind of afterlife at 248 Flushing Ave in Brooklyn. I wanted to solve this mystery and walked by once, but there was no way to get into the building. The business, whatever it was, is gone now.

alimosina, Sunday, 17 July 2016 21:34 (seven years ago) link

Before my time, but some very interesting stuff here about the Eighth Street Bookshop
http://realitystudio.org/bibliographic-bunker/positively-eighth-street/

The Professor of Hard Rain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 July 2016 12:59 (seven years ago) link

four months pass...

And exactly ten years later give or take a week, will be the last day of BookCourt.

I Walk the Ondioline (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 December 2016 17:52 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

Here is a list of NYC bookstores circa 1993
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.sf.written/HZvsc7mdkOU

Isora Clubland (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 July 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link

Which mentions the German bookstore off Columbus Circle I mentioned upthread:

Mary S. Rosenberg Bookstore (1841 Broadway, really on 60th a couple of
doors west of Broadway, 212-307-7733)
Large collection of German books, most standard paperback series,
and many used and new hardcover titles in literature, philosophy.
Books stacked all over, but navigable once you figure out the basic
layout.

Isora Clubland (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 July 2018 22:57 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

Uh oh Book Culture

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 9 January 2020 00:09 (four years ago) link

RIP the one in the old Endicott location

We Jam von Economo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 22 January 2020 21:34 (four years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Looks like the Strand is going to move into that Columbus and 82nd sure that once was Endicott & Co. and then a Book Culture.

Also feel kind of weird seeing some American Greetings closed where I used to buy books decades ago.

Something Super Stupid Cupid (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 1 March 2020 15:28 (four years ago) link

Bank Street Bookstore on the Upper West Side.

Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 7 December 2020 16:25 (three years ago) link

Moving the bookstore out of the lobby of the school many years ago was an obvious mistake and probably sealed its eventual fate. As was letting Beth Puffer go.

Lamont Dozier Dream House (Deflatormouse), Monday, 7 December 2020 22:22 (three years ago) link

You seem to know a lot about this

Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 7 December 2020 22:32 (three years ago) link

I grew up in the neighborhood. The decision to move the store out of the school lobby and into a huge retail space on the corner wasn't to expand the store, it was to free the space in the lobby for a principal's office they could have put anywhere. They went from paying zero rent to paying... I can't remember the figure but it was jaw-dropping.

Lamont Dozier Dream House (Deflatormouse), Monday, 7 December 2020 23:04 (three years ago) link


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